DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21216#0105
(her own voice, the reception she received, and the songs she sang). This flaunt-
ing of qualifications, formal training, hard work, and uninteresting tasks per-
formed for the sake of a sought for goal, which is all part of Baez' initial success
story, coupled with her refusal to stay in College and her nationwide renown,
made her, I think, an example of the victorious rebel for those still bound by
academic regulations or high school dress codes.
The above is not an exhaustive list of elements that went to make up the
"rebel image", what is lacking is an analysis of which media Statements and
images were available to which young people in those first years. Looking back
on her high school years and the first years of her career Baez has said that she
was rebellious then. In the Ahlgren interview she said of herseif in high school,
"I used to just scream at people", and in an interview on the eve of her "Ring
Around the Congress" protest against the Vietnam War she is reflective about
her past and its problems:
Today I feil stronger and less afraid. I used to be really paranoid, and it used
to reflect in hostility. I was always on the defensive. . . I was almost a beatnik
in College — that was before the hippies. I ran around in sandals and long hair.
I never wanted to go to B.U. in the first place, and I only hung around for a
semester. Then I went to Big Sur in California with my boyfriend. It was a
big rebellion thing. (Washington Post, June 21, 1972 p. B2)
It would seem that some of Baez rebelliousness came out of insecurity, at least
according to how Baez saw herseif later. These remarks came more than five
years after an article which sought to tone down the rebel image:
Joan was not the same kind of rebel as were many of her young admirers.
Though they identified with her she had never smoked even filter cigarettes,
much less marajuana, and she never quite conformed to the coffeehouse
hipster society of Harvard Square when she lived and sang in that world
after leaving Boston University. (Redbook article: "Joan Baez, Fm really
a Square", Jan. 1967 p. 120)
In that article Baez distanced herseif from those who took drugs, "who end up
getting their days and nights mixed up and smoking pot and all that". But the
author of the article, Dan Wakefield, makes her into someone who refused to
fit in with the expected behaviour in those hip circles, so Baez ends up rebelling
against another set of expectations. The older Baez gets the more she seems
Willing to admit to former rebellion, and to a somewhat rigid stance. For in-
stance, she told People Magazine about her Latin American tour, where she was
barred from singing in Chile, Argentina and Brazil:
100
ing of qualifications, formal training, hard work, and uninteresting tasks per-
formed for the sake of a sought for goal, which is all part of Baez' initial success
story, coupled with her refusal to stay in College and her nationwide renown,
made her, I think, an example of the victorious rebel for those still bound by
academic regulations or high school dress codes.
The above is not an exhaustive list of elements that went to make up the
"rebel image", what is lacking is an analysis of which media Statements and
images were available to which young people in those first years. Looking back
on her high school years and the first years of her career Baez has said that she
was rebellious then. In the Ahlgren interview she said of herseif in high school,
"I used to just scream at people", and in an interview on the eve of her "Ring
Around the Congress" protest against the Vietnam War she is reflective about
her past and its problems:
Today I feil stronger and less afraid. I used to be really paranoid, and it used
to reflect in hostility. I was always on the defensive. . . I was almost a beatnik
in College — that was before the hippies. I ran around in sandals and long hair.
I never wanted to go to B.U. in the first place, and I only hung around for a
semester. Then I went to Big Sur in California with my boyfriend. It was a
big rebellion thing. (Washington Post, June 21, 1972 p. B2)
It would seem that some of Baez rebelliousness came out of insecurity, at least
according to how Baez saw herseif later. These remarks came more than five
years after an article which sought to tone down the rebel image:
Joan was not the same kind of rebel as were many of her young admirers.
Though they identified with her she had never smoked even filter cigarettes,
much less marajuana, and she never quite conformed to the coffeehouse
hipster society of Harvard Square when she lived and sang in that world
after leaving Boston University. (Redbook article: "Joan Baez, Fm really
a Square", Jan. 1967 p. 120)
In that article Baez distanced herseif from those who took drugs, "who end up
getting their days and nights mixed up and smoking pot and all that". But the
author of the article, Dan Wakefield, makes her into someone who refused to
fit in with the expected behaviour in those hip circles, so Baez ends up rebelling
against another set of expectations. The older Baez gets the more she seems
Willing to admit to former rebellion, and to a somewhat rigid stance. For in-
stance, she told People Magazine about her Latin American tour, where she was
barred from singing in Chile, Argentina and Brazil:
100